The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-06-09
TURKISH FUNERAL RITES.
Death and Burial in the Land of
the Crescent.
From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat,

From the St. Louis lobe-Democrat
If Turk dies, or looks as if he were
dead, no physician, no Inspector comes
70 make sure that death has really taken
| place; but if 1t has not, the fact will soon
be established, thanks to a procedure
more efficient than all the gentle and re-
fined means in vogue in the west to make
sure that the deceased is not hoaxing his
heirs.
Scarcely has the last breath BEEN taken
when the corpse is lifted up violently by
vigorous arms, says Emile Jullard in the
Cosmopolitan, the clothing snatched off,
laid on the t1agstones in the mortuqry
chamber or vestlbule and hes prinkled with
hot water, which is trOwn upon it by the
imam, provided with a large pail. The
sprinkling is repeated two or three times,
so that the family runs little danger of
seeing the deceased resuscitated.
Thus scalded as preliminary step, the
body is washed and dried. Then it is be-
| powdered with camphor, and after being
| covered with cloth embroidered with
verses from the Koran, it is exposed for
several hours in the courtyard. After
ward the imam returns and accompanies
the corpse to its last resting place.
The fiat, covered bier is usually carried
on the shoulders of friends of the de-
ceased, or upon those of hiced pail bear
ers. Sometimes strangers assume this
duty gratutiously, looking upon it as a
pious and meritorious act. The cortege
is made up only of those that carry the
coffin by turns, thus relieving one another
without stopping. The coffin is made of
cedar, and it is seldom vanished but it
is covered with rug or shawl, and there
is plac at the head turban or fez if
the deceased is a male.
The procession always moves hastily,
oot for the purpose of getting rid of the
dismal burden, but to hasten the moment
when deceased shall enjoy eternal repose;
for the Mussulman believes that the soil
is restless and unhappy as long as the
corpse is unburjed. This is why three or
four hours only elapse between death and
burial.
On arriving at the cemetery, the imam
so places the bier that the face of the de-
ceased is turned toward Mecca; he then
approaches the brink of the grave and
utters very long prayer, the conclusion
of which is as follows: Draw near Noun.
kir ana Nekir, angels of death and minis
tiers of Allah. Great and blessed God, we
humby beseech thee to make the earth
light for thy servant. May he find grace
and mercy with thee. Amen" A Christ
tian's prayer does not say anything more
nor any better.
According to the Koran, the deceased is
the owner of his grave in perpetuity, and
the Objectionable system of sepulture in
rotation, is unknown to the Musselmans;
and in ConstantinOple, in Eyoub and
Scutar, the room occupied by cemeteries
is almost as extensive as that covered by
dwellings. Within recent years it has been
found necessary, in order to open roads
| that have been much needed, to curtail
and even suppress some of the cemeteries,
but it required an express order from the
Sultan, which made the ulemas utter the
wall of bigots."
The cypress is pre-eminently the
funeral tree. Each tomb has to have its
own. And Turkish cemeteries become
gloomy forests in time, which impart to
certain Oriental landscapes an as
pect singularly stiff and SOM
bre. 1t is upon the sea-
shore that these funeral forests are found
in the greatest abundance; the trees, being
nOurlshed by the soil fertlllzed by human
remains, reach a prodigious size and
height. The largest and most celebrated
of these cemeteries is that of Scutari, upon
the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus; it ex-
tends over an area more than six miles
square.
The tombstones are in the shape of an
oval, wider at the top than at the bottom,
and surmounted with a turban or fez,
the form of which, varying greatly, indi-
Gates the rank of the deceased. A gilt in
scription in lurking characters, cut in
relief on blue background, gives the
name and enumerates the virtues of the
deceased and implores divine mercy in
his behalf. These stones are sometimes
perpendicular, sometimes leaning very
much. In the latter case hole is dug at
the base of the tomb, intended to catch
rain for the little birds that come to
quench their thirst.
The dead are not buried very deep, and
it is strange shat the custom does not
cause more sickness than it does. A
large proportion of the epidemics of dys-
eatery and typhoid fever that invade
| the lower quarters of Constantinople can
be traced to this custom. The proximity
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